Academic Council Meeting Minutes, February 16, 2004

I.  Minutes 

• Academic Council Retreat of 1/16/04—approved

II. General Agenda 

• Data Collection

--Trudy Wortham reported that currently the spring enrollment stands at 2360, with semester credit hours at 17,401.  She reminded the deans that international students can only take one online course per semester. 

• Instructional Technology and Online Issues

--Joe Ferguson said that most email lost several weeks back has been recovered, and it will be sent to those it belongs to in the near future.  He added that M-drive operations from home are about ready.  Randy Faulk has sent out the computer replacement lists.  The deans are to send Joe lists of new and replacement faculty positions for fall to ensure that computers are ordered.

--Chari Norgard had three issues:

1)      She requested that ISS staff and school online support staff meet monthly.  The deans agreed.

2)      She presented a draft of a policy on students’ abuse of online course passwords and accounts.  We agreed to send it and the Education School’s appropriate online behavior policy to a joint committee composed of all members of the Undergraduate Affairs Committee and the Graduate Studies Committee for their review and recommendations.

3)      She discussed the migration to Vista.  UH wants 50% moved by summer, 75% by fall, and 100% by spring.  She wants to train all faculty migrating in summer for four hours, by school, in April.  Deans are to send preferable dates for training to her.  All Business faculty will migrate in summer. 

• Fort Bend Issues and Updates 

  --Charles Bullock raised an issue of copying in Sugar Land.  Ron Sardessai (substituting for Paul Carlson) commented on the processes for decision-making affecting faculty at the teaching centers.  The provost will look into the issue.   

• System Strategic Planning 

--The provost gave a brief overview of the System Strategic Planning effort as he understood it.  Academic Council members were invited to attend the hearings on Thursday, 2/19/04 in Victoria following the Regents meeting.  

III.  Specific Agenda 

• Student Appeal 

  --The council sent the only student appeal back to the School of Education for further review. 

• Faculty Conference/Publication/Research Requests and Reports 

  --Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($600) to Dr. Li Chao for the 2004 Information Resource Management Association International Conference, in New Orleans, LA, in May. 

  --Approved a publication award ($600) to Dr. Li Chao for the published refereed paper “A Study of Field Independence Versus Field Dependence of School Teachers and University Students in Mathematics” in Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2003, 97, 873-876. 

  --Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($329) to Dr. Mel Damodaran for the Consortium of Computing Sciences in Colleges, South Central Region Conference, in Austin, TX, in April. 

  --Approved a development grant for conference presentation and panel discussant ($970) to Dr. Yong Glasure for the Missouri Valley Economic Association Meeting, in Kansas City, MO, in February. 

  --Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($550) to Dr. Donald Loffredo for the Southwestern Psychological Association Conference, in San Antonio, TX, in April. 

  --Approved a development grant for conference presentation ($1,000) to Dr. Colleen Logan for the American Counseling Association Annual Conference, in Kansas City, MO, in March. 

  --Approved a publication award ($600) to Dr. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy for the published article “Knowledge and Innovation:  Diffusion of HRM Systems” in Beta:  The Scandinavian Journal of Business Research (2003). 

  --Approved a research grant ($1,000) to Dr. Jifu Wang for the continuous study of leadership effectiveness of CEOs, whose subjects are managers and their subordinates.  The research orientation is strategic planning and implementation. 

  --Accepted two grant funded conference travel reports from Dr. Bud Fairlamb. 

• Other 

  --Trudy Wortham raised four policy points:

1)      We agreed that if a student took a graduate course for undergraduate credit, it would not count toward the student’s graduate GPA.  Deans will discourage students from petitioning that such courses later be converted to graduate credit.

2)      We agreed that if a student took a graduate course for undergraduate credit, it would count toward the student’s GPA for honors.  It could not, however, be later petitioned for graduate credit.

3)      We agreed to have Trudy present us with a revision of the policy covering the time limitation for graduate courses so that it would cover all graduate courses, not just transfer courses.

4)      We agreed that graduate students who change majors need to meet the qualitative admission requirements for the new degree. 

DPJ/kw
2/16/04